How to use Alby with nosft.xyz to get NFT ordinals/inscriptions?

This guide shows you how to use Alby with nosft.xyz and how to use it to mint your ordinal/NFT.

Nosft.xyz is a light wallet (a inscription management tool) for bitcoin inscriptions, connected to your Nostr(ℹ️) key. It is a simple open source web application to manage your ordinal inscriptions/NFTs. It uses your Nostr keypair and thus works perfectly with your Nostr key managed in the Alby extension.

This guide shows you how to use it and how to buy an ordinal with Alby.

Pre-requirements: You have installed the Alby extension and have configured your Nostr key (see also these guides here and here). Make sure you have a backup of your Nostr key!

Please note: your NFTs/inscriptions will be managed by your Nostr private key. It is currently not possible to import this key into various other wallets. The focus here is on simply managing inscriptions with Nos-FT.

Get Bitcoin on your wallet to buy the NFT.

It is important to know that the Alby extension is a lightning wallet and used with the Lightning Network! The Lightning network is a "layer 2" payment protocol layered on top of Bitcoin. This means payment transactions in Alby happen on the lightning network and are not onchain Bitcoin transactions. The lightning network is scalable, instant and perfect also for small amounts. Your NFT/inscription will live onchain and is managed by the Nostr private key which is saved to an "account" in the Alby extension.

Many services and marketplaces use the lightning network for payments and then send the NFT to the onchain address of your Nostr private key.

To get Bitcoin into your Lightning wallet go to "receive" in the Alby extension, enter the amount and an optional comment to generate a new lightning invoice. This invoice then can be paid with any other Lightning wallet or service that supports lightning. (Note: many Bitcoin exchanges still do not support lightning. Kraken for example is an exchange that works with Lightning. See how to topup.)

If you have an Alby account you also get a bitcoin onchain address to swap onchain bitcoin to lightning. This address can be used with any Bitcoin wallet and any exchange. To get your onchain bitcoin address go to the getalby.com dashboard, go to receive. There you'll find your "Onchain bitcoin to lightning" address. Use this address only to send Bitcoin - NOT for your NFT. Those Bitcoin will be credited on your lightning wallet.

Get your NFT/inscription address

Many projects load your Nostr address for the NFT minting directly from the extension. You will be prompted that that the app wants to read your public key. So in this case you do not need to manually provide your address.

But to get the your NFT address (again: this is not the swap address from the getalby.com dashboard) go to nosft.xyz and "connect your Alby extension".

It will prompt you to enable Nos-FT and allow it to get your Nostr public key.

Once confirmed you can "View Deposit Address"

Only use this address to receive your NFTs. You should also not send onchain Bitcoin to this address. Nos-FT is optimized to manage NFTs.

Buy an NFT ordinal

Many projects like Astral Babes, Bitcoin Wizard and others automatically load this address from the Alby extension. So no need to manually copy&paste an address there and everything works automatically.

The project loads the NFT address from the Alby extension, requests a payment which is paid through lightning and once paid those projects mint the NFT by sending an Bitcoin onchain transaction to your NFT address. (Remember this address corresponds to your Nostr private key.)

Then go to nosft.xyz and you'll see your NFT inscriptions. From there (and only from there) you are also able to send the NFT to other addresses.

If you have multiple accounts in the Alby extension, make sure to select the correct one with your Nostr private key.

Need help?

If you have questions or feedback please contact support@getalby.com. This space is early and evolving fast. We work hard to provide the best user experieince, but we need your feedback!